Thread

Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

422 points · 290 comments · ADevWithAnIdea

MoltenMonster · 1789511027 · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AsahiLinux/comments/1whecn1/comment/pa1spia/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/AsahiLinux/comments/1whecn1/comment...
> The author was banned from Asahi Linux for hiding his extensive use of LLMs from us in another attempted contribution, and (more importantly) for concealing that he is a former Apple engineer with direct contacts to the people involved in Apple Silicon development. Make of this what you will.
1. ADevWithAnIdea · 1789514814 · focus · HN ↗
  > concealing that he is a former Apple engineer with direct contacts to the people involved in Apple Silicon development
  This is false. I am a former Apple engineer. I did not conceal it (it's the top item of my resume and my LinkedIn and I made my PR from my public Github with my name attached, as opposed to a pseudonym which is expressly allowed by Asahi policy). I also had no exposure, at all, to any internal information or code about macOS, SPTM, or Apple Silicon during my time there.
  I also don't have connections to people involved in Apple Silicon development (and I'd add that this does not mean someone cannot contribute, the question is were they exposed to tainted information, which is absolutely not true in my case). I have many friends who work for Apple (I'm a Stanford alum) but none in Apple Silicon directly.
  I disagree with the phrasing of this entire thing, but this statement is demonstrably false.
  1. thrwy19940314 · 1789519818 · focus · HN ↗
    At least according to your own accounts on the Asahi IRC rooms, you were very aware of SPTM (which is part of the AS platform) and knew the people working on it: <a href="https://oftc.catirclogs.org/asahi-dev/2026-06-04#35383763" rel="nofollow">https://oftc.catirclogs.org/asahi-dev/2026-06-04#35383763
    politician · 1789521887 · focus · HN ↗
    Do you work for Apple?
    bigyabai · 1789522258 · focus · HN ↗
    Probably not. Clean room RE is serious business, projects like Dolphin have to carefully vet contributors to remain legal.
    15155 · 1789537961 · focus · HN ↗
    Everyone says this, and then exactly zero cases are cited in support of or against this creative legal theory known as "clean room RE."
    No statute defines "clean room RE" and there's basically no relevant litigation establishing case law.
    Dylan16807 · 1789543183 · focus · HN ↗
    When you say "case" does that mean you're rejecting the evidence of Phoenix technologies not getting sued along with all the other BIOS clones?
    15155 · 1789548101 · focus · HN ↗
    Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence. "Not getting sued" doesn't validate a legal theory - legal theories are validated in court where they become case law. Until then, they are plainly speculative.
    This "clean room RE" fabrication is also not something so obviously compelling that nobody would ever attempt to challenge it - it's just that nobody has cared to put dollars behind it. IP provenance cases are enormously difficult to prove and are almost always settled ahead of trial. This concept is software engineer folklore more than anything.
    Dylan16807 · 1789554016 · focus · HN ↗
    Saying you won't believe it's effective at all until someone sues and loses isn't the most compelling argument. If nobody sues then yes that is some evidence of effectiveness. It's not an absence of evidence, you're misusing that line.

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